The Center for Biological Diversity, Alliance for the Wild Rockies,
Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Friends of the Clearwater, Idaho
Conservation League and Wyoming Wilderness Association petitioned the
Forest Service today requesting protection for the northern goshawk
and its mature and old-growth forest habitats. The petition was filed
under the Administrative Procedures Act, a federal law that gives citizens
the right to petition government agencies to issue a rule. The petition
includes all national forests in Idaho, Montana and western Wyoming.

According to studies, the goshawk is closely associated
with mature and old-growth forests in the northern Rockies, which
have been severely
depleted by a century of logging. “Extensive loss of old-growth
forests in the northern Rockies necessitates immediate protection for
the goshawk, including protection of all existing old-growth forest
and all roadless areas over 1,000 acres,” states Noah Greenwald,
conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Most other regions of the Forest Service have enacted
guidelines to protect the goshawk, including national forests in
the Southwest, California,
Utah and Alaska. These guidelines prohibit cutting around goshawk nest
sites and limit cutting within goshawk home ranges. “Despite
similar concern for the goshawk in regions with protective regulations
and the northern Rockies, national forests in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming
have failed to enact substantial regulations to protect the goshawk,” states
Jeremy Nichols, Endangered Species Coordinator for Biodiversity Conservation
Alliance. “This failure is resulting in continued harm to goshawks
in the northern Rockies.”

Impacts to goshawks continue to the present. According
to documents obtained from the Forest Service, 183 projects in the
northern Rockies
potentially impacted individual goshawks or goshawk habitat in just
one three year period (1999-2002). Most projects were timber sales,
but also included road construction, prescribed burning, recreation
development and general construction. The projects potentially impacted
at least 229-252 goshawk territories. Only 372 goshawk territories
are known on national forests in the northern Rockies, suggesting the
Forest Service is impacting a substantial proportion of the goshawk
population. “Without protective measures, the cumulative impacts
of timber sales and other projects will lead to the continued decline
and eventual extirpation of the goshawk in the northern Rockies,” states
Liz Howell, Executive Director, Wyoming Wilderness Association. “This
death by a thousand cuts is a clear violation of the Forest Service’s
mandate to maintain the health of our national forests and the species
that depend on them.”

The petition asks the Forest Service to develop
guidelines to protect the goshawk in the northern Rockies, recommending
pre-project surveys
for goshawks, and prohibition of logging and other destructive activities
within 60% of goshawk home ranges and in 510 acre areas around known
nest sites. The petition also recommends instituting forest-wide protections
for all remaining roadless areas over 1,000 acres and all remnant old-growth
forest stands.